Mukta Arts celebrates its 42nd anniversary today with a special 3-film deal announcement with Zee Studios. But more on that later, first a brief history of Subhash Ghai, Mukta Arts and his films.
Ghai’s career began as a student from the acting course of FTII who then had a stint of four years as an actor in Mumbai. The young man then became a story writer for the top 6 directors of the 70s including Prakash Mehra and Dulal Guha with his scripts like Aakhri Daku and Khan Dost. After being a writer for 3 years he was given a chance to direct his own script Kalicharan, produced by NN Sippy, which established him as a director with the film a hit. He wrote and directed another super hit Vishwanath for Shatrughan Sinha’s Arts. He was recognised for his crispy talent of dialogue writing as well as extracting performances from actors big or small.
After directing two more films with a bigger canvas Gautam Govinda and Krodhi starring Dharmendra, he launched his production company, Mukta Arts on 24th October 1978 with Karz starring Rishi Kapoor, an evergreen musical that still is considered a classic. With Karz he came up in the rank of top directors and craftsmen of Hindi mainstream cinema. Ghai then started the tradition of launching all his movies on 24th October, which is his wedding anniversary. Here is a cool fact, he named his company Mukta Arts after his wife Mukta.
After watching Karz, superstar Dilip Kumar accepted to work under his direction. Titled Vidhata, the action drama also featured a young new actor…Sanjay Dutt. Again launched on the 24th of October 1981, the film went on to be a super hit.
Ghai’s new company as MUKTA ARTS PVT LTD company was launched on 24th October 1982 with his evergreen musical love story Hero introducing Jackie Shroff and Meenaxi Seshadri.
Then, of course, on 24 October 1984, the director launched a court drama, Meri Jung, for his mentor N N Sippy. He cast then rising actor Anil Kapoor who became a star for his performance as a lawyer.
Since then on every 24th of October, the whole film industry would wait for his announcement of a new movie under Mukta Arts. Distributors would send their cheques in advance on the 24th without knowing the star cast. He became the most popular writer-director-producer of India.
The media titled him as SHOWMAN after his biggest blockbuster action film Karma, once again starring Dilip Kumar, which included an illustrious 8-minute patriotic song ‘Aye watan tere liye‘.
A string of blockbusters followed including the family drama Ram Lakhan (1989-Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor), the epic story of two titans Saudagar (1991-Dilip Kumar, Raj Kumar), an emotional crime thriller Khalnayak (1993-Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit), an Indian daughter story Pardes (1997-Shah Rukh Khan), the big-screen musical Taal (1999-Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Akshaye Khanna), a father-daughter social drama Yaadeien (2001 – Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Jackie Shroff), a period drama Kisna (2005-Vivek Oberoi), the musical canvas Yuvraaj (2005-Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif), and also the issue-based drama on terrorists Black and White(2008-Anol Kapoor). All these movies, as per tradition were launched on 24th October of the year.
In 2001, Mukta Arts was the first Hindi production company that was listed in public in India and raised funds to set up a world-class film and media arts school. Named Whistling Woods International, the school located in Film City Mumbai, was ready to groom the next generations of content and filmmakers.
Mukta Arts produced 42 films including super hits like Aitraaz, China Town, Iqbal, Ek Aur Ek Gyarah, Apna Sapna Money Money, Jaan, and more. The company has distributed 400 plus films and today runs 60 screens as exhibitors all over.
Now, on the 24th of October, Mukta Arts, which has developed a huge story bank with young and veteran writers, announced it has tied up with one of India’s biggest studios Zee Studios to produce three movies in 2021. Scripts of all three are ready which include a comedy, a thriller, and a courtroom drama. Cast and crew are being finalised to go on floors in March 2021.
Again on 24th 2020, Mukta Arts is back with a bang in film productions too. Wait and watch next 24th October 2021 for a bigger surprise.
We can’t wait to see what the eminent production house has in store!
Here are some more fabulous pictures… yes, the total number of images in the article is 24!
